Sept. 1 (Reuters) - AstraZeneca and China's Hutchmed said on Tuesday that a late-stage trial of a combination of their cancer drugs Tagrisso and Orpathys significantly improved progression-free survival when given early for a type of lung cancer.
Cancer therapies make up nearly half of AstraZeneca's sales and Tagrisso is one of its best-selling drugs, while Orpathys is being developed along with Hutchmed as the British drugmaker pursues its goal of $80 billion in overall annual sales by 2030.
The drug combination was able to help patients in the trial live longer without their disease worsening compared with cases where Tagrisso alone was given as a first-line treatment for EGFR-mutated advanced non-small cell lung cancer whose tumours showed moderate to high levels of the MET protein marker, the companies said.
"By combining Orpathys with Tagrisso, we have observed a clear clinical benefit that could reshape primary treatment strategy for this distinct patient population," said the leading principal investigator of the trial, Yi-Long Wu.
Patients in the trial had not previously received treatment for their advanced lung cancer, the companies said, adding that the combination also showed encouraging benefits in overall survival, a key secondary goal of the study.
